Scottish EV charging point use doubles

The use of EV charging points in Scotland has more than doubled since last year.

According to new RAC analysis of the ChargePlace network in Scotland, charging points were used more than 26,000 times in August 2016 compared to just under 13,000 times in August 2015.

The figure is nine times higher than the same month in 2014, which saw less than 3,000 EV charges.

Despite this, a quarter of charge points were not used at all during August 2016, emphasising the importance of where they are placed.

The number of Scottish EVs licensed for government plug-in grant schemes has risen to around 3,500 – up from 2,050 last summer.

The amount of public and commercial charge points in the network has reached 870 – with 1,772 sockets between them. This compares with 694 charge points and 1,373 sockets a year earlier.

Rapid chargers, which can charge most EVs to 80% in under half an hour, made up 18% of charging points.

Most public charge points take four to eight hours to fully charge an average EV.

Steve Gooding, Director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Facilities need to be in places where people will use them but there’s something more. The evidence suggests that it is rapid chargers that are getting a disproportionate amount of use, which bears out the view that improving the convenience and speed of ‘filling’ up with electricity is mission critical to the wider take-up of these vehicles.”